Why Castrate Cattle?

Why do farmers and ranchers castrate their cattle?

First thought that comes to mind, because I do not want my heifers bred to an inferior bull. Castration also comes to mind when I think of the neighbors’ traveling bulls. But in reality, it’s a management decision. Why would you castrate your dog?

When I asked for a blog post topic via Twitter, I received a couple of questions about castration and why we have to do it. Well, we do not have to castrate our cattle, but like many, many other management decisions in raising beef, it is a decision in response to consumer demand. Consumers want a consistent palatable, flavorful product. So, producers respond to the demand.

I castrate my male calves a few hours after birth using a band method. Some producers choose to not castrate until 2 to 4 months of age using either a band or knife method. Other producers choose not to castrate and the cattle will be castrated at 7+ months of age. Not all male calves are castrated. Animals with superior genetic and physical characteristics are left intact (not castrated) and used as bulls in breeding herds. I have a few reasons for castration and I will try my best to break them down for you.

Castration for Breeding Selection

If I were to give you one reason why we castrate animals, I would say it is because of breeding selection. It goes back to the earlier mentioned consumer demand. We set parameters, for selected characteristics in our herd (i.e. Weaning Weight, Muscling:Fat, Milk Production, Physical Soundness…). We select bulls that fit this criteria to produce a uniform, desirable calf crop. If we left all bull calves intact (not castrated) we would have heifers bred to their brothers, at an early age, and would move away from desired breeding program. Not to mention heifers bred too early are not allowed to reach their full growth potential as cows.

Why choose banding shortly after birth?

Any stress in a calf’s life has direct impact on immune function, appetite, and lifetime performance. If we can castrate, vaccinate, etc. calves while they are still nursing their mother’s in a familiar environment, at a younger age, we minimize the stress on that animal. The calf has a sustained immune system, healthy appetite, and endures less stress.

How does castration affect beef product?

Have you ever tasted beef from an 18 month old steer, compared to an older bull? There is a difference in flavor, texture, fat composition, and overall palatability. Lower levels of testosterone lead to higher quality grades and more consistent tenderness and marbling in beef. Consumers have chosen the flavor of the steer beef over bull beef with their spending dollar. Castrating early decreases the number of “dark cutters” due to high muscle pH.

Why not just leave them all bulls?

Sure we could do that. Intact males tend to be more aggressive cattle and there is less control of breeding programs and seasons, a less consistent beef product, and no calf fry gourmet dishes.

When it comes down to it we castrate calves because, compared to bulls, steers bring more at market, have higher post-weaning performance, and can’t breed their sisters during the grazing program after weaning. We want our heifers to be able to mature without the stress of any early pregnancy and castrate early because we care about the stress and immune system of our cattle.

Maybe it all boils down to caring about the welfare of our cattle while responding to consumer demand.

What are your thoughts? Why should we (or shouldn’t we) castrate cattle?

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Ryan Goodman lives in Helena, Montana, but grew up on a family cattle ranch in Arkansas. He has spent the last several years learning about farming systems across the country, living in Oklahoma, Texas, Wyoming and Tennessee. He is a proud Animal Science graduate of Oklahoma State University and has completed graduate level research at the University of Tennessee, focusing on beef cattle reproduction and nutrition. Ryan works with the Montana Stockgrowers Association and does speaking events across the country centered on agriculture advocacy for farmers and ranchers. Outside of advocacy, Ryan is a novice runner, with goals of accomplishing his first Half Marathon in 2015, and enjoys refueling with a good steak. #TeamBeef!

17 Comments on Why Castrate Cattle?

Good post Ryan. I might add a couple of things that people with no cattle experience don’t realize.

Bull calves often enter puberty at five months of age. Any cow not pregnant by the time the bull calves reach this point will be literally mobbed by the bull calves to the point the cow is injured (This doesn’t take into consideration the injuries to the bull calves fighting over the cow)
When working for Leachman Cattle Co. of Billings Montana back in the early 90’s we had over 400 private treaty bulls in one pasture. There were times we had to put down bulls because they had been injured too badly to survive when other bulls would gang up on a single bull.

Cattle are raised to sell at the market, and the farmer is paid by the pound. A steer (a castrated male calf) will gain faster than a bull or a heifer (female calf) because they have other things on their mind besides just eating. Also steers and heifers can be in the same feedlot without any problems. If you had a bunch of bulls in a feedlot they would have it tore up with fighting. There is nothing that will stop a bull fight, nothing!

Hi Ryan,
I really like how simply you explained this complex issue. Those of us in the industry often don’t even consider why we do the things we do because we’ve always done them. I linked this post to my blogpost on branding where I talked a little about the castration we do at brandings. You can see the blog at http://tinyurl.com/3k69st7.

Enjoyed your article. Now I got a question – we just bought 25 heifers with calves from a neighbor. We worked them this past weekend for the first time. All the calf bulls had been banded but 2 so we banded them (because our neighbor has always banded). But we have been told that banding brings a lower price at the sale. Is there any truth to this?

Banding shouldn’t make a difference, compared to using a knife, in castration. Now, if you’re selling calves calves soon after banding, that would bring a discount. I wouldn’t reccomend marketing any castrated calves until they are completely healed after castration.

bobkinford brought up an important point, and it’s something we producers are going to have to watch carefully if/when AR groups gain more foothold. Most welfare certification programs require (usually at a given stage of certification) that animals ‘are born and die with all the same body parts.’ No castration, no tail docking, etc. These ‘welfare’ requirements have no consideration for the human beings who work with these animals – bulls are downright dangerous to not only each other but to the people who work with them. Thanks for a great post!

Implanting far exceeds the ability of just simply castrating for the points you listed plus behavior. So are producers just adding unnecessary stress and infection risk when done by knife to the animal?

Jim, I assume your referring to implants like Ralgro or Revalor? These are great products that allow for improved efficiency of weight gain by helping to enhance metabolic processes, Are you suggesting using these without castration?

Bob brings up a great addition about the aggression of bulls to each other. But there is also the danger in their aggression toward the human handlers too!! There is always increased risk of being hurt by either being caught in their fighting and not being able to get away from them or them being aggressive directly towad you. My sis worked at a sale barn and had 2 bulls come in and fight over a fence, they crashed through a gate she was behind and it pinched her between them the fence and the ground. The only thing that saved her was her dog that stepped in between her and the bulls and got them to the other end of the pen. If he wouldn’t have been that kind of cow dog they would have continued to do the Mexican Hat Dance on her.

Jim Fisher – Our vet is a believer that a knife is less stressful than a band especially in older bulls. The problem I have seen with the band especially at birth is alot of times 1 of the testicals was missed. I have had to “re-castrate” a lot of bulls coming into the feedlot that had been banded. Not saying that banding is not a good option I think it has a place. We knife cut our calves at 1-3 months of age (branding time) and by the next morning they are back to “normal” behavior, if done correctly they don’t loose more than a drop of blood. In the past 3 years we have not treated a single calf for infection. We also use and anticeptic spray, dip our knives in a surgical scrub between each calf and turn them out into clean dry lots to help prevent infection.

I completely agree that the knife is better than the band. My family has always had better luck castrating our calves when we use the knife rather than using bands. Also if using the knife is done correctly I believe that the knife could even be considered less stressful then banding because with the knife, the castration happens all at once. It happens, the calf is put in a clean, dry lot and the calf is usually back to normal by the next day. I am not saying that banding should never be used because banding does have its advantages, but I prefer the knife to banding.

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